Cloud Chaser
by Viidoll
Summary: Dino gathers his thoughts on his way to train the Vongola's Cloud Guardian and finds himself surprised by the way he is treated after reaching the rooftop. Honestly, it's hard to tell what's going on in Hibari's head. Implied D18 (Dino/Hibari).


_Disclaimer_: Sadly, I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Maybe one day, if I dream big enough! ToT

So I wrote this earlier today while I was on a break between classes. I'm not sure why it came to me, but it just did. Not that I'm complaining about it :) This is my first time writing characters from KHR, but I'm fairly confident in my interpretations of their characters. Though I'm sure writing Dino's thoughts is much easier than writing Hibari's xD Anyway, this story is light slash, more like a hint of what could happen in the future if things turned out the way I wanted them to xD I guess I was inspired by the idea of storm chasers and related it to D18, somehow.

Please feel free to write a review for me. Any form of constructive criticism is welcome and highly appreciated. I want to know how you feel about my interpretation of their characters so I know how to write them in the future. Your feedback is what will inspire me to write about them again. Thank you so much for your time, and enjoy the read! :)

* * *

**Cloud Chaser**_  
_

From the moment he laid eyes on Hibari Kyouya, he knew this boy was going to be troublesome. He could see it instantly in those glaring eyes of his... they were filled to the brim with chaos, lack of reason, and pure, unadulterated defiance. It didn't even matter what, he would just defy it. But most of all, his eyes were filled with bloodlust. Very troublesome indeed. But then again, that was the reason why Reborn had originally chosen him for the job.

Dino had just entered the building by the time the bells started ringing – school was over, and the students instantly began streaming through the halls in their hurried escape of the premises. Some people just weren't made for the confinement of classrooms. He knew one such person. He attended class when he wanted to and skipped when he didn't. He wasn't meant to be stuck in a building all day writing notes.

Hibari was always less hard to understand than he was hard to control. Normal reasoning was entirely ineffective when it came to him, a person who solved all of his problems with either fear or violence. At first, Dino had thought of him as rather... unpredictable. It is true that he is completely overwhelming when one first meets him, so he would come off that way. But after spending so much of his time training the prefect, he found that he was more volatile than he was unpredictable. Dino had just had to change the way he approached him, and then he was soon able to read him.

He would be on the roof, where he seemed to spend most of his school life. His time, it seemed, was best spent fighting. And if that didn't happen, his second best option was to sleep. So somehow, under the harsh rays of the sun, the prefect would lay down on the roof and nap his school days away. And he got away with it too, because there was no one, at least in the school staff, who was brave enough to tell him that he needed to attend his classes.

Well, Dino had the right amount of courage. It wouldn't be the first time he told Hibari this very thing, but naturally he didn't care about anything but readying his weapons. The prefect had become a sort of project for him, in a way. Whenever Reborn would need the Cloud Guardian to cooperate with the Vongola Famiglia, he would send Dino to do the convincing. And rightly so, as Dino had seemed to develop a knack for convincing the teen to do what was needed. One brawl and maybe a bribe here and there, and Hibari was their man. Surprisingly, it didn't take much to convince him, though he generally needed reminders throughout his assignment as to why he was there and not biting to death his enemies. Hibari was acutely simple-minded – promise him a good fight to forgo the one in front of him, offer him a chance at revenge, or even hint to him that a certain opponent might be there, and he was along for the ride no matter how displeased he became. His motivations, naturally, were almost always in reference to a fight of some kind, and there was a surprising amount of those in their odd mafia world.

He managed to make it to the staircase leading up through the school to the rooftop, after enduring some pushing and shoving from the students preoccupied with their rushed escape attempts. He adjusted his fur-lined jacket that he wore despite the sunny weather and began to ascend them, followed by the soft footsteps of one of his subordinates.

Dino was the leader of his own Famiglia, but he sometimes seemed to find his time momentarily monopolized by his allied family. Honestly, he always had things to do for his own family, but he would forever be indebted to Reborn, the one who made him the man he was today. The whole reason he had begun to work with this troublesome individual was as a favor to his ex-tutor. Reborn was the kind of person to have ulterior motives though, dedicated at improving his disciples. Dino always wondered how Reborn thought he would improve by being forced to deal with Hibari.

Especially now that he had begun to notice a change in himself. Dino didn't know when he had started feeling like the situation was less of an obligation and more of an exhilaration. Perhaps Hibari's bloodlust had started to rub off on him. Perhaps he wasn't as content with himself and his own Famiglia as he had previously thought. Or perhaps, just perhaps, he was starting to fall for this completely barbaric, unreasonable, and carnivorous boy.

He sighed as he climbed the stairs. He walked slowly, attempting to resolve these thoughts and feelings before he reached the top. The prefect wasn't the most intuitive of people, but he didn't want to chance that Hibari would notice that something was off.

When had Dino's feelings begun to change? When did he start finding himself bored with the affairs of the Cavallone family? When did he start looking forward to tonfas passing within a centimeter of his face, to blood splatters on the concrete, to that crazed, intimidating smile? That smile that was so full of excitement over the violence that he had never seen anything quite so innocent before?

Their brawls, despite that fact that neither of them were the kind to hold back, were never the kinds of fights one had with a true enemy. They didn't hold the desperation of someone needing to win, the fear of the possibility of not doing so. They didn't fight for any reason other than fighting. Hibari had never needed a reason to fight, and Dino's job was to make him stronger. It was never a serious, life-endangering fight. At least, that is, on Dino's side – it was hard to tell what Hibari was thinking other than his enjoyment of the fight.

He always did wonder how Hibari was feeling. He never seemed to express much other than annoyance with Dino for talking instead of fighting, anger with students who broke the school rules, and exhilaration when they were fighting. Though there was one thing. His concern for the small animals who have taken up being by his side. He expressed it oddly, but it was obvious that it was concern. This was proof to Dino that there was something other than pure bloodlust in the prefect. It was that trait, that unconditional love for his animal companions, that was the Cavallone leader's favorite thing about him. And the pure happiness and love those animals exhibited when they were around Hibari that just further proved that somewhere, underneath the wild grin, the chaotic eyes, and the scuffed tonfas, some part of him was gentle. Some part of him was tender. Even though Hibari had never and like would never show this side of him to other humans, Dino knew it was in there. Would Hibari ever be that way with anything other than small animals? And if he did choose to do so, how likely would it be that Dino would be the one he would show it to?

They had gone up most of the levels by now, and the ceiling had gotten much closer. Soon he would reach the door, and he would be met by grey-ish blue eyes. He always seemed to look forward to that now, despite leaving his own affairs temporarily unattended. To meeting one of the purest creatures he knows and being able to keep that experience for himself.

How does one catch a cloud? Drifting only on it's own whim throughout the sky, bound only to what it binds itself to? No matter what situation arises or who enters it's life, it is in a cloud's very nature to be tied down by nothing and no one. And there was no other way to describe Hibari's existence than by comparing him to a cloud.

The door at the top of the staircase creaked open when he turned the knob and pushed, always alerting the prefect to his presence. Hibari, across the roof, lying exactly where he thought he'd be and in the exact resting position he had assumed he'd be in, did not react to the sound and continued to sleep.

The Cavallone leader walked over to where his student lie, standing just out of arm-and-tonfa-length when he said, "You skipped your classes again today?"

Grey-blue eyes fluttered open, already set in their usual stare. "It was too crowded. Too many herbivores. I can't stand the way they gather like that."

"Kyouya," Dino said with a smile, at which the prefect sat up and shot him a glare. "It is a classroom. You aren't the only attending school. Would you rather have a private tutor educate you all day?" He asked as a joke, knowing fully well that it didn't matter what kind of education he received – a classroom setting would never be the one for Hibari.

The prefect stood, and already his tonfas were at the ready. Dino always wondered how he got away with carrying them around all of the time. Though it wasn't hard to imagine Hibari using said tonfas to beat up any teacher or police officer who might try to stop him from doing so. He pointed one straight ahead, stifling a yawn. "According to you, I already have a private tutor. So come on, let's get this lesson started."

Dino only laughed, though his hand was already hovering over the handle of his whip. Hibari was never the kind to hold back in a fight, and the Cavallone leader always had to be at the ready around him. But oddly enough, the attack he had braced for didn't come. Hibari hadn't moved, except to cock his head to the side ever so slightly. His gaze, as always, was unreadable.

He was genuinely surprised when he saw the prefect lower his weapon. "What's the matter, Kyouya?"

The teen turned slightly, a soft wind picking up his messy black bangs, revealing his sharp gaze. "You are weak today."

Dino was taken aback. What weakness was Hibari talking about? Hadn't he already gathered himself and his emotions in preparation for this meeting? Dino was revealing nothing, but somehow the prefect could sense something was there. "I don't know what you're talking about, my student."

"I know you're stronger than this," the teen said coldly, lying back down on the rooftop, a hand over his mouth as he yawned yet again. "Come back when you're strong enough to be a challenge."

The whip cracked as it hit concrete to the right of Hibari's head. The prefect calmly opened his eyes and glanced over at the blonde man several feet away. "I've never seen you willingly refuse a fight before, Kyouya," the Cavallone leader said authoritatively, intentionally trying to egg his younger sparring partner on. "Are you sure you're not the one who is weak right now?"

"Why are you so eager to be bitten to death?" the prefect asked, sitting upright once more.

Dino cracked the whip again, this time close to the teen's hand. Hibari didn't flinch – he never did. Instead he smiled, that pure, frightening grin he held with narrowed eyes. "Usually you're the one wasting time talking. I've never seen you so ready to fight before."

This entire situation was so strange. What on earth was this boy thinking? He could never tell what was going on inside of Hibari's head. It's not like it could be anything like... wait a minute. Was this... was Hibari trying to cheer him up? Was this Hibari's way of expressing his concern over him? There was no way. There was absolutely no way. Was there?

"So let's begin the lesson then," Dino said in repeat of his student, his voice strong and his gaze masked. He had to get him to fight now, because then he could his thoughts in battle once more. Somehow, a serious fight was always so good at distracting him from these feelings hidden inside of him.

"Fine," Hibari said as he arose, never one to turn down a battle, especially from such a determined opponent. "But I won't hold back, even on the weak."

"We'll see who the weak one is," the Cavallone leader said with a mischievous smile, and Hibari was already in front of him, throwing all of his strength into the swing of his arm.

Dino dodged the attack and spun around, his whip flying through the air and landing on the concrete with a harsh snap as he missed his opponent. He felt his sleeve rip as he jumped out of the way of Hibari's relentless attack, wrapping his whips around one of the arms wielding a tonfa. Hibari paused and looked up at him, that crazed smile across his face once more.

"There," he said, his eyes unreadable and narrow. "You seem to be getting stronger again. This might just be a good fight after all."

The loose tonfa connected with Dino's face and he was knocked to the ground. The prefect's words had shocked him. This really was his way, albeit a rather unique method, of trying to make Dino feel better. He had never talked to him like this before.

The Cavallone leader rolled out of the way as Hibari jumped, aiming his weapons at the spot where Dino had laid only a millisecond before. The concrete cracked a little, but he still lunged again. That in itself was a shock. Hibari's precious school's rooftop, damaged by his own weapon, and he ignored it? Granted, Dino always had any damage repaired almost as quickly as it happened, but Hibari would never allow a fight like this to continue on the school grounds after he saw something like that.

The blonde lashed his arm out, his whip flying through the air in Hibari's direction, catching his pant leg in the slightest and causing a light tear in them. The prefect, still wearing that same smile, lunged again. "You'll never catch me at this rate."

And Dino realized that it was impossible to catch a cloud. There was just no way. It can't be tied down – it would just slip out of any rope or wire that wrapped around it. He supposed that the Dino of ten years in the future knew this as well. When he had received the memories of himself in the future, the first thing he did after was smile. Even in ten years, Hibari would still be his special project. He would still be running after him, trying to bribe him, chasing him.

There was no way to catch a cloud. Dino knew that. All he could do was keep chasing after it. In ten years, he would still be chasing after it. But was that really a bad thing? Was it wrong to continue chasing the one thing you want the most, now matter how out of reach it is, for the rest of your life?

If Hibari was a cloud, Dino would be a cloud chaser. Because no matter how much he tried, how far he reached, he could never catch a cloud. But maybe, just maybe, the cloud would catch him.


End file.
